R&D&I

Selected News

15. December, 2017

E-Group — China UnionPay

Antal Kuthy, representing E-Group CUP Gateway transaction gateway service provider company, participated at a meeting with the chairman of China UnionPay, Mr. Huayong Ge and other leaders. China UnionPay, founded in 2002, is one of the world's most dynamically developing leading bank card organizations with 5 billion cards issued in more than 14 countries and accepted in 92 countries and territories. In the next few years, CUP Gateway, as a partner of OTP Group, will continu to expand in the region. E-Group is dedicated to developing and implementing new innovative payment technologies in the Central-Eastern Europe.

8. December, 2017

Antal Kuthy participatedat the Recovering Healthcare conference

Our CEO, Antal Kuthy participated at the roundtable-talks of an event organized by Nézőpont Intézet, a Hungarian organization dedicated to research and analysis activities. The topic of the conference was the recovering healthcare of Hungary. At the conference, Tamás Deutsch, commissioner for the „Digital Wellbeing Program” spoke about digital healthcare in Hungary and possible digital economic developments in the future. The presentations were followed by roundtable-talks that were attended by, among others, Zoltán Szabó, the CEO of NISZ (National Infocommunications Service Company), Miklós Szócska, former healthcare under-secretary of Hungary and current director of SOTE Institute of Digital Health Sciences, and Gergely Vartus, commissioner for E-Health coordination as well. The participants examined the opportunities of digital healthcare from the Hungarian strategic viewpoint. Antal Kuthy talked about on the opportunities of digital healthcare, and he explained, that a vast digital data-based colonization is taking place, and therefore, it is extremely important to manage healthcare-related data in a form that is in accordance with their significance to the national economy. As a Hungarian SME, E-Group received a great opportunity with a GINOP tender. Along with the University of Pécs, our company is taking part in the world-class development of medical data lake prototypes that will serve as a groundwork for the clinical use of data and such technological environment. Based on experience, it is possible to establish the model for leveraging the national healthcare data assets where clinical data, research, and planning is realized using artificial intelligence technology. In the future, we are planning to bring in further innovative companies and projects to the data lake project.

4. December, 2017

Innovation Day - EIT Digital

In December, our company’s CEO, Antal Kuthy was invited to be the keynote presenter at the first Innovation Day organized by EIT Digital and our company, now as the partner of EIT Digital was introduced as well. The topic of his presentation this time was digital colonization. Nowadays, mostly all data is accessible in digital form. Dataflow intertwines the whole world, everything becomes more and more connected. But who is in control? Who has the power over data? Our CEO elaborated on this topic, he mentioned future trends and Europe’s position in this new digitized world. According to him, the power is in the hands of those who process data. Europe plays an increasingly secondary role, lagging behind the USA and China. Adopting the American start-up culture without consideration, and opening Europe’s markets without limitation put Europe in a difficult position: that is what we call digital colonization. According to our CEO, the way out for Europe is to realize its own weaknesses and redefine and base the market on its own traditions. The European way is a network of cooperating companies and research facilities which are able to meet user demands based on the long tail model. The key message of the presentation therefore was that from digital naives we need to become digital natives. And for that, we need organizations like EIT Digital. It has been proven by E-Group’s successful participation in the EIT projects, real projects, cooperating with international partners.

28. November, 2017

EIT Health, GoGlobal/Go2China

Our company’s CEO, Mr. Antal Kuthy, and Balázs Fürjes, Managing Director of EIT Health Innostars met the Chinese delegation at the end of November. The topic of the meeting was the EIT Health GoGlobal/Go2China European Innovation Acceleration programme, led by E-Group in Europe. The parties discussed the integration of Shenzen in the programme.

22. November, 2017

Blockhaineum Conference

The Blockhaineum Conference was organized this November in Akvárium Klub. Blockchain is the new craze in technology nowadays, we can hear more and more about it. However, in Hungary, this was the first conference exclusively about the blockchain technology and the future opportunities it offers. Our company was represented as well, our CEO, Antal Kuthy gave a talk. His presentation was around the end of the program, therefore others already introduced the blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, thus Mr. Kuthy mostly focused on the future opportunities of the technology, and offered an insight into what direction these technologies could develop in, and what effect will it have on our lives. He mentioned the certain steps of blockhain development. He believes that with the development of distributed autonomous organizations distributed autonomous companies, or even distributed autonomous societies could emerge. Regarding this topic, it is only natural that the Internet of Things and the convergence of blockchains were mentioned as well: with the automation of machine-to-machine communication, blockchains are introduced, as intermediate layers, which will make it possible for creating distributed artificial intelligences as well. This field, however, requires several (technical) issues to be resolved. Mr. Kuthy addressed the legal system and how smart contracts will bring changes in that area, becuase automation and artificial intelligence is expected to change the work of lawyers. Smart contracts are neither „smart” nor considered „contracts” at the moment. Their implementation into the legal system is problematic, beginning from the problems of coding and managing personal data to issues of jurisdiction and liability. In the future, technology experts should play a role in legal and financial regulation.

8-10, November, 2017

WFD’s 3rd International Conference

In November, 2017, Budapest hosted WFD’s (World Federation of the Deaf) 3rd International Conference, the key theme of the event was Full Inclusion with Sign Language, promoting the preservation, development and equal rights of the deaf culture. Our company’s CEO, Antal Kuthy presented at a plenary session of the technology section. The presentation was interpreted to the deaf audience with the help of sign language interpreters. Our world is constantly changing thanks to recent technological advances. These advances have the potential to fundamentally change for the better the quality of the lives of disabled people, including the deaf as well, and help them fully integrate into society. The concept of disability is going to change fundamentally in the future as barriers are disappearing with technology. Among the advances in technology, our CEO mentioned a few, such as chatbots, that could function as personal assistants, artificial intelligence and the increasing role of augmented reality as well. These might be the reality of a more distant future, however, our company offers a solution here and now. Our product, MOBIX, is a powerful, smart technology platform delivering Video Relay Services (VRS), Video Remote Interpreting (VRI), and Integrated Multimedia Messaging services and connecting the members of the Deaf and Hard Hearing Community with the rest of society. We also exhibited at the conference to promote MOBIX internationally.

Blockchains and cryptocurrencies

The MNB Department of Corvinus University held its first own conference, the topic of which was The role of digital currencies in financial infrastructures. Our company’s CEO, Antal Kuthy spoke at the conference on the new trend in the financial world —cryptocurrencies. In his presentation, he addressed the blockchain technology behind these, distributed ledgers, cryptocurrencies, and the major players and existing implementations in the field.

The presentation emphasised Bitcoin, as the first cryptocurrency-implementation, and Ethereum, featuring smart contracts. He outlined the development phases of blockchain technology (where it originated from, where we are at the moment, and what to expect in the future), and he illustrated with examples the advantages and disadvantages of the technology, and the possible areas in which it could be used. He concluded his presentation with a proposal, according to which the central banks of the Visegrád Group (V4) should issue their own cryptocurrency together.

Our company together with IBM hosted an exclusive business luncheon at the brilliant Four Seasons Hotel in March, 2017. The intriguing topic of the event was Instant Payment in practice and beyond – from myth to milliseconds in light of cognitive banking. The participants had the opportunity to hear about the overall idea behind the project, as well as technological solutions and efficient design, a cognitive banking vision and real-time fraud management.